Law & Policy: Civil Actions

Parents of a boy injured earlier this year after falling off a climbing wall at the Weston (Fla.) YMCA are suing the organization, alleging that the injury was due to an employee’s failure to secure his harness, as well as the absence of safety mats.

Devin Pabian was celebrating his 11th birthday with a party at the YMCA and rock climbing with a group of friends. He had been harnessed in by a worker and scaled the 30-foot-tall wall. As he attempted to rappel down, he instead fell.

The lawsuit alleges the fall was caused by an improperly secured harness or rope, and that the staff member in charge of monitoring the climbers had left the area.

Pabian suffered fractures to his wrist, ankle and spine and had to be airlifted to a hospital for surgery.

"The miracle is he survived such a fall, the tragedy is it was preventable had the facility taken the necessary and reasonable safeguards to protect such young members and visitors they entice to such an attraction," says the family’s attorney, Jay Cohen.

The Pabian family is seeking more than $15,000 in damages. A YMCA spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit.

A judge ruled that the NCAA will have to pay $44.4 million in attorneys’ fees and an additional $1.5 million in costs to lawyers for the plaintiffs in the Ed O’Bannon lawsuit, despite the NCAA's claims that the legal fees amounted to less than $10 million.

Tom Lechnir was a successful baseball coach at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for 26 years. He compiled a 728-292-1 record during his time as a coach at the school and led the team to the 1994 Division III championship. Despite an impressive record and a history of positive performance evaluations, Lechnir lost his job after the university alleged that he was responsible for and didn’t repay debt on a new baseball stadium.

In January 2010, Michael Hawkins, a member of X-Sport Fitness in Chicago, sustained injuries when a mirror fell from the wall and struck him while he was exercising. Specifically, Hawkins was seated on a bench doing arm curls with free weights in front of a three-by-eight-foot mirror that was mounted on a protruding portion of the wall. As Hawkins used the weights, another patron bumped the mirror and dislodged it.

In a short statement released by Florida State University, Seminoles football coach Jimbo Fisher announced that freshman quarterback De'Andre Johnson was dismissed from the team following the release of video footage by the state's attorney office showing Johnson punching a woman in the face at a Tallahassee bar.